Will You Get A Lift In Published Reviews on Google+ With New Spam Filter?

Here is the latest post from Google, from an employee named Dasha. The article link is: Google Reviews and was posted today at 12:00 noon.

Dealers are still looking for guidance on how the Google+ review spam filters work and what are the best ways to get their active Google customer to post about their experience online.

Google is responding to dealer requests for clarity as well as all business owners that understand in impact of online reviews that are very visible in Google search.

Will this change increase the number of reviews that will appear on your Google+ Local page?

Here is what Google has to say as of today:

We’ve made some recent improvements to our spam detection algorithms that have increased the number of reviews that appear on some local Google+ pages. We hope this improves your local experience!

Online reviews have been in the news a lot recently, and we at Google are committed to helping people to get ratings, reviews, and recommendations that are relevant, helpful, and trustworthy. To protect both business owners and customers from spam reviews, we have systems in place that may remove individual reviews.

No one likes spam, and we’d like to talk about what you can do to make sure all of the reviews on Google+ Local are useful, honest, and written by real people!

Sometimes you may want to review multiple locations of the same business, such as your favorite fast food chain. Just remember to tailor each review to the specific location. Others will want to know what sets that location apart - be it the super friendly drive thru person, or maybe the unexpectedly awesome lake views.

Don’t write reviews for your current employer. We don’t allow reviews from current owners or employees.

Spam bots use URLs to redirect to other sites or potentially spread malware. We won’t show reviews with links, so, don’t put URLs in the text of your reviews

For business owners:

Be wary of an SEO or reputation management service that promises to generate reviews for your business. We’ve seen companies make up fake glowing testimonies -- and we’ll take them down.

We don’t take down negative reviews for simply being negative for anyone, regardless of any other relationships with Google. Instead, we encourage you to utilize the owner response functionality to respond to the review and address the user’s concerns.

If a third party claims that they know how to remove reviews from Google, don’t believe them. Google does not work with any third party reputation management companies and we certainly don’t remove reviews unless they violate our guidelines.

Don’t set up a computer or tablet device in your place of business for customers to leave reviews on site. Consider printing out a QR code or sending a reminder e-mail so customers can review on their own time.

Remember, we don’t allow you to give customers free gifts or discounts for leaving reviews.

For SEOs:

If a business accepts paper comment cards it might be tempting to collect them and “digitize” them by posting the reviews on Google+ Local. We ask that all reviews come from first hand experience and do not allow posting reviews on behalf of others.

For everyone:

If you see a review that violates our policy guidelines, you can report the review to us by clicking on the gray flag icon next to the review in question. You’ll be taken to a form where you can tell us why you’re flagging that review. Please note that we won’t follow up with you individually, but we do review every piece of content that is flagged.

Register For DMSC - Online Reputation Management

If you would like to send your team to DMSC, you can speak directly with industry experts on Reputation Management strategy. DealerRater.com, Cobalt.com, Dealer.com, and other companies can help your dealership make the most of your happy customers. Of course, Peter Leto from Google will be at the conference representing the Google Jumpstart Team for car dealers.

Contact Carrie Hemphill at 908-601-6475. If you are a member of this community, ask for special conference pricing. You can also register online.

Attendees will not need a rental car since the conference is being held at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport in Orlando, which is connected to the airport. Hotel rooms are $149/night.

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Based upon all of the comments here and especially Kim's below. I truly do not believe that Google had a good administrative staff or resources dedicated to managing reviews. They probably tried to automate the administration process and have failed, only to realize that many quality and legitimate reviews were deleted or disallowed. Sad if you ask me.

I suppose it's good news, but I am by no means enthralled with the way they handle Google+ Local and the rules engine that regulates Google+ in general. I'll be eager to see how many dealerships reviews do come back for the numerous properties I manage.

From a non-dealer stand point I am a fan of the google policy. It means when I look for a review on a product I want I can trust that the review is for the most part - relevant. I am certain that was the intention google had when they made these changes. We have a tendency to be so entitled and yet google reviews are free to us. Most of what we are able to do with our digital business now relies so heavily on google and their platform. I am thankful I have these opportunities - Even if they frustrate me!

I know the frustrations all too well of being on the dealership side as well and the policy changes have been terrible. Keeping up with what to do and when can be extremely challenging. I am glad to see that the policies have been put in writing. It doesn't mean they will stay that way but at least we know where to begin again.

What light can you shed on this? Is there anything in common between the reviews that have reappeared?

PS. Reread my post here and I want to be clear that I'm not a "Google Hater." I'm so glad to see they now have clearly defined "rules." The ambiguity and apparent backtracking on policies over the last 24 months is hopefully behind us.

One of the clear obstacles to G+ review collection, and likely the reason it flat-lined, was the loss of anonymity. G+ Reviews dropped precipitously when they made it a requirement to have a G+ profile to post reviews. Consumers love transparency, so long as it isn't required of them, right?

Quite the quandary... Force a G+ profile and drive G+ engagement or allow anonymous reviews to be written and potentially watch G+ fizzle into a long list of Buzz, Wave, Jaiku, and Dodgeball.

Dealers should see over the next few weeks if their IRM processes are getting more reviews to actually show up if they follow these rules. Many dealers have said that the growth of their Google+ reviews has flat-lined, so with these specifics, and a promise for a better spam filter, dealers who do the right thing should be rewarded. (I hope)

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